Archive

Erika Linder’s Next Big Moves: Our Exclusive Interview (Part Two)

If you missed Part 1 of our exclusive interview with Erika Linder, you can read it right here.

Erika Linder likes modeling, but doesn’t love telling people she’s a model.

“I fucking hate it,” Erika said. “People are like ‘It’s great-you can make money off your face!’ I’m like ‘I don’t think it’s that great. Like you can’t do that for forever.’ It’s fun,” she clarified, “but I just hate saying it. A lot of them are just like ‘I’m a model and I fucking love it!’ I mean I do love it-because I wouldn’t do it and it brought me here and I live here and have a good life.”

Erika’s real love is music, and she says she’s been playing the guitar since she was six years old.

“I just want to try and do a lot of different stuff with it but, for now, I just sit there with an acoustic guitar and play,” she said. “But I kind of want to get into more, funnily enough, more hip-hoppy, which is interesting. I’ve gone through so much shit with relationships and you sit there and you write all these deep lyrics. Like ‘Oh, that’s corny!’ But I listen to everything-from boy bands to hip hop and rock music. So I’m still trying to figure it out.”

In the next year Erika will also add “actor” to her resume, as she’s been cast in an upcoming film that she hopes to record a song for as well.

“I got cast because the director-he took his inspiration from another movie that he did from me and it was actually a guy-a really girlie guy or whatever,” Erika said. “And then he’d been stalking me for a while and then when he was going to do his new movie, he asked me ‘Hey, do you want to be in it?'”

Erika said she’s “not trying to be an actress or anything” but once she heard more about the film (“it’s a road trip movie” with the “weirdness” of Big Fish) she said yes.

“When I saw the list of actors, I was like ‘I want to be in that movie!’ But yeah, I’ve never done anything like it and I’m like ‘You live once! I’m here now, I might as well do it,” she said. “I mean it sort of just landed in my lap. And it’s also like, like I said, I’m 24 so I might as well try it out.”

In the film, Erika’s character is, well, very much like Erika.

“I’m gonna marry a girl in the movie. And I play a model in it. Very typecast!” she said, laughing. “This is pretty easy, but it’s going to be really cool.” But she’s mostly excited about the opportunity to record a song for the soundtrack.

“I play guitar, piano and drums and I’ve always wanted to release something but I’m super modest about it because I’ve been playing music since I was like six years old and never released anything-barely my family has heard anything because I’m so shy about it and so private,” she said. “So I don’t know yet. We’re still talking about it but I thought that would be a kind of cool way to release something, you know? A good opportunity I guess.”

Erika is quick to say she is not interested in being “a pop star.”

“Whatever my voice is good for, I guess,” she said. “But it’s interesting. I really want to start doing it now. I want to release stuff. I feel like I’m ready to do that now.”

Because playing music been a very private venture for her up until now, Erika said she’d be nervous about touring but can see herself performing more intimate venues.

“I’d probably puke a few times before that,” she said of touring. “I would be so scared. Maybe do like-not like touring the world or like touring 25 dates but more like low key things and then people can come if they want to. It’d be free though. People can just come and see whatever they feel like!”

Erika said it’s different from modeling because songwriting is much more personal.

“I don’t know if I would feel so vulnerable if people are going to judge me. That would be horrible,” she said. “I mean I’m confident, but that would be like… so I’m still super scared to think about it and sitting there with my guitar playing, oh my god, I would kind of explode. But it’s something I need to do.”

Seeing as how she already has a platform built for herself, Erika has a lot of eager fans waiting to hear what she’s been working on. She has a steadfast following that are active on social media, some professing their crushes and devotion to the woman they see in pictures. I ask how it is for her to receive so much attention, and how her girlfriend feels.

“It depends on who you’re with, I guess,” Erika said. “Because if you’re with someone that’s my age….Yeah, I can’t be with a jealous woman. That would suck.”

Erika does admit she’s a flirt, but that a big misconception about her is that she’s tough; that her stoic looks in photoshoots mean she’s not so friendly. But truthfully, she’s very friendly. Quiet but not afraid to get goofy on set, she is not nearly as intimidating as her modeling work might suggest.

“What I’ve heard is that people think I’m so tough and hard with no emotions whatsoever, and then I’ve heard a lot of times, ‘You’re actually nice!'” Erika said. “I’m like ‘What do you mean?’ They’re like ‘You’re very feminine and just like nice! You’re not evil at all!’ I’m like “Why would I be?'”

Erika said that she attributes those assumptions to her more masculine persona in photos, and that at the beginning of her career, she was a little angrier in her personal life.

“I smile way more now because I’m happier in my life and super comfortable with who I am. In the beginning I was this girl doing the guy stuff with the short hair and I lived in Sweden,” she said. “I love Sweden to death and I’m gonna move back, but it was kind of like-I was struggling a little bit because people wanted to change me so much-pushing me to do something else, have long hair, do this. I didn’t like the industry that much but right now I’m in such a happy place.”

Whatever happens next, Erika is ready for. She is confident that the Erika Linder brand will continue to see success, because she is letting her gut guide the way.

“Right now, I’m just trying to focus on the brand, the movie that I’m going to do, and music,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to focus on. I’m sure stuff is gonna come up and people will be like ‘Do you want to direct? Do you want to write for other people?’ Right now I just feel like it’s my time-I feel like it’s about me now, but who knows when I’m older. The brand itself I can work with for forever, because I just think it’s a cool thing to do and want to involve more friends to help me out with it and start a company. I know that I can do that for as long as I fucking live-and that would be rad if that happened because I’ve got so much good response.

“It’s gonna happen, I know that,” Erika continued. “If I put my mind to it, it’s gonna happen.”

Photos by Lindsey Byrnes

Hair by Candice Birns

Make-Up by Amber D

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button